As we all have probably heard, Google launched a bunch of new things yesterday, including a new Google Maps!

It’s not quite launched yet, but the video above does a short walkthrough, and it shows the maps include a neat new display so you can compare transit trips. (PS: Google’s Vancouver transit searches runs off TransLink schedule data that we provide to them, so things are generally fairly accurate.)

I like how this might make transit even more friendly for people figuring out how to get around. And Google really seems to be interested this goal too – here’s a quote from a Skift article from yesterday:

There was also a strong presence for public transit across all Maps platforms. Product Manager for Google Maps Bernhard Seefeld said, ”We want to make public transit much much much smarter,” and you see this ambition across the Maps products, as well as the updated Google Now, which will include real-time transit information.

So now: I’m curious what you think about the new Google Maps for transit! Do you use Google Maps for transit much today—and what do you think about what you need from its future? I’d love to know your thoughts!

Congratulations Cathy!

Business in Vancouver has a great profile on Cathy which speaks to why Cathy is being honoured by her peers. The TransLink investors page has info on the results of Cathy’s work in choreographing TransLink’s ability to raise funding through Canadian debt capital markets.

Cathy is very humbled and appreciative of being honoured with the award, and gives high praise to her team at TransLink. As she puts it,

“I have never worked in an organization—and I say this on regular basis—where people are so passionate about what they do every day…they believe in what they do every single day and they want to make a difference in people’s lives and that’s contagious.”

Cathy will be collecting her award tonight at the third annual BC CFO Awards Gala.

Congratulations to Cathy for a job well done!

Speed networking at the summit

Wow, the last two days of the summit were a world wind! I really can’t believe the weekend is already over. The summit started last Friday and ran until Sunday night. An unbelievable amount of organization and work was packed into structured 14-hour days and late night conversations.

After the settling in and housekeeping of Day 1, Day 2 was jammed packed with all types of activities.

Following an early morning breakfast at 8am, the delegates were loaded onto a chartered Calgary Transit bus and taken on a tour of the city’s transit-oriented communities. Then, promptly at 10:30am, the group unloaded the bus and walked into a professional development session at the downtown campus of the University of Calgary.

Dubbed “Speed Networking and Sponsored Speeches”, the idea was to use a speed-dating model for young delegates to meet professionals who work for either a transit authority or private companies with some connection to transit or environmental initiatives. Delegates were given five minutes with each professional before a bell was rung, and they had to move onto speaking with the next professional. Sitting in on a few of these speed meetings, I found the concept to be a truly one-of-a-kind experience. The opportunity to have access to this many professionals in such an informal environment was truly unique.

Saturday afternoon was filled with a lunch/career fair and a workshop about partnering with business and working with stakeholders.

After a 15-minutes break to catch their breaths, the delegates met with their CUTA 2013 Workshop partners to frantically work on their pitches for their transportation project. As mentioned in my last post, the winning pitch would receive $5000 to kickstart their idea.

C-Train dance party!

After dinner, the delegates where taken to the guts of Calgary Transit’s LRT (Light Rapid Transit) system, known as the Oliver Bowen LRT Maintenance Facility, for a technical tour. Afterwards, they were whisked away onto a private non-stop, three-car DJ party train! Yup, complete with streamers, dimed lights and thumping tunes, delegates got a chance to unwind, get to know each other better and get a free and unique tour of the system’s newest line out to North West Calgary.

It was another early start for delegates on Sunday. They were given the choice to attend two of the following four sessions of speakers followed by a question and answer period: Transit and Accessibility, Transit Planning in Small and Large Communities, Transit and the Aging Population, and Linking Active Transportation and Transit.

There was a short break for lunch, then two more sessions for delegates to choose from: Carsharing – A Key for Sustainable Transportation or Media & Communications. I was one of the speakers at the latter session along with Matthew Blackett, Publisher and Creative Director of Spacing Magazine, and Tony Seskus, Assignment Editor of the Calgary Herald.

Matthew had some great insights into how technology can really get people involved in the dialogue of public transit. Tony had some indispensable advice on how you can get the media to cover your story, cause or event.

My chat was about TransLink’s history in social media and how we can continue to connect with our online audiences in the future. I had a great time answering some very insightful questions in the Q & A period.

The summit ended off with the fruits of the hard work of delegates’s group work. For a two-hour period, each of the nine CUTA 2013 workshop groups presented their pitches to an expert panel.

Cheers at the end of a long and fun weekend.

Mimicking the Lion’s Den TV program, delegates had five minutes to convince the panel that their ideas were the most worthy for the $5000 kickstart prize.There were some fantastic and creative ideas, especially considering that these groups of delegates had never worked together before and had only a few hours to come up with their ideas, make digital or analogue presentation aids, then pitch them with enthusiasm.

The prize went to a rewards program much like Air Miles, but for public transit. Instead of getting points when you buy gas for a private vehicle, with this group’s idea, a more sustainable choice like taking public transit would gain you points that could be redeemed for rewards instead. The pitch included a PowerPoint of images of a smart phone application called Green² where users would be able to track how many kilometers they travelled on public transit using GPS technology and be awarded points based on this distance.

I spoke with Alex from Ladner, BC, who was the main presenter for the group (and a very good one, I might add).

Why did you decide to apply to be a delegate for this year’s summit?

Alex: Someone told me about the conference. I’m really passionate about transit. I haven’t been involved in the working of it before, but I knew I wanted to be part of it. I had no idea that transit was so complex, such a hot topic and can be so leading-edge. It’s amazing how much work there is to do, how much potential there is, how much opportunity there is in the industry, and I can’t wait to get more involved!

This was probably the most eye-opening conference I’ve ever been to.

How old are you?

Alex: Nineteen.

Are you in school?

Alex: I just graduated from Delta Secondary in 2012. I go to Langara College and am studying computer science part-time. I’m going to BCIT next year to study computer information systems administration.

I saw an opportunity with all of the smart card systems on tying together all the data collection available and making it accessible to users, and that’s what I presented on today.  There’s been reward programs for travelling and burning fossil fuels; however, there haven’t been any rewards programs for taking transit. If we can get people to see the value of taking transit and make the data available by using more smart cards, we can really give people a picture of what they do on transit, the role that they play and reward them for it.

What were your thoughts about the summit before you came?

Alex: I thought it was going to be some dry lecture thing and not as interactive as it turned out to be. I’ve had some amazing experiences here.

Now that the summit is over, what are your thoughts?

Alex: I can’t wait to get started. I’m probably going to be doing an urban planning degree at some point in the future. I’m so looking forward to getting involved in the industry. If I can tie in IT and transit, that’s my dream job.

If you have any interest in public transit, apply to go to this summit. It’s a great experience. I highly recommend it. I give this summit an 11 out of 10. It was awesome!

Alex’s enthusiasm for the weekend was mirrored in the hollers and cheers of the entire delegate group, organizers, speakers, facilitators and volunteers during the closing remarks by David Cooper, a Senior Transit planner with Calgary Transit and chief summit organizer, Sunday night.

Now that this year’s Western Youth CUTA summit has come to a close, plans will need to be made for the next summit in 2015, which will be held in either Edmonton, Winnipeg or Vancouver.

Opening remarks at the Leading the Way Youth Summit 2013

The sixth instalment of CUTA’s youth summit, also known as the Leading the Way Youth Summit, began today in sunny, yes sunny, Calgary, Alberta.

Welcome to the summit!

The summit is a meeting of young Canadian minds and transit professionals aimed at sharing ideas about the future of transit. Delegates from across Canada were selected months ago to take part in this weekend of workshops, projects, tours,  and indispesible knowledge and new friendships.

The first day officially kicked off with a dinner featuring some keynote speakers. David Cooper, who I interviewed earlier, was the master of ceremonies for the event.

Doug Morgan of Calgary Transit did a quick overview of the current state of transit in Calgary . He set the tone for the weekend as a fun and innovative way to share ideas. Doug also spoke about ran through Calgary’s strategic plan for transit called Route Ahead.

Next up was Don Mulligan, Transportation Planner for the City of Calgary. He spoke about his work on a document called Plan It Calgary, which looks at what Calgary could look like 60 years from now (two generations).

Councillor Brian Pincott of the City of Calgary followed Don and spoke about their vision of planning their city, ImagineCalgary. The overarching theme of his talk was about building a city for people.

Some Metro Vancouver delegates at the Vancouver airport

Kevin Joll of Red Deer Transit and Chair of the P & T CUTA Chapter spoke about Transit 2040, a vision for public urban transit for the next generation. He also spoke about the short history of CUTA youth summits wthat started in Vancouver in 2008.

Peggy Hunt, TransLink’s Manager of Government Relations and Chair of the BC CUTA Committee, was the last to speak. She spoke about both BC Transit and TransLink with an emphasis on governance. Her speech provided the valuable nuts and bolts of just how transit in BC is governed for an audience who just may be the future of transit professionals in Canada.

Peggy Hunt, TransLink’s Manager of Government Relations and Chair of the BC CUTA Committee

The evening finished off with delegates breaking off into groups to start work on their collaborative projects for the weekend. Called the CUTA 2013 project, delegates are given the opportunity to pitch project ideas to an expert panel. The winning pitch will be given funds toward making their project happen.

Talking to delegates with backgrounds like planing, landscape architecture, cartography and law, the one common sentiment for the summit is an excitement about new ideas and new connections to be made this weekend.

Over the next two days, delegates will be working hard and learning a lot. Yours truly will be there to document some of the weekend and even give a speech about how social media is playing a larger role in connecting transit authorities with audiences of transit riders online. Here’s to a great weekend!

A SkyTrain near Main Street-Science World.

Heads up, late-night Expo Line passengers!

Starting Sunday, May 12, 2013 plan for an extra 10-15 minutes travel time after 8 p.m., if you travel on the Expo Line between Waterfront and King George most Sundays to Thursdays.

What’s happening? We’re replacing 34 km of original power rail on the Expo Line. The power rail supplies SkyTrain vehicles with power, approximately 650 volts DC. The full project is expected to take as many as 15 months to complete.

Check out our news release for more info, or visit translink.ca/ontrack for the latest updates.

And please share with friends if they might be affected!

Edit: Lots of people on Facebook have asked why we can’t do the replacement while the service is down, and SkyTrain staff provided a great response—I thought I’d share the answer here too.

It’s just too big a project. It takes significant time to disconnect, remove, replace, reconnect the power rail. There isn’t sufficient time to do this in the 3 hours (or less) that we have on weeknights, and only slightly more on weekends.

In very basic terms the work involves the following:
- power rail sections are 10 m. in length, weighing approx. 200 kg.
- target: 130 metres of double rail (positive and negative) per night – that’s 26 sections of rail.
- old rail is disconnected from insulator posts, and removed.
- old insulator posts (every 2 m., bolted to the concrete) have to be removed.
- new insulator posts installed.
- new power rail sections lifted into place and connected.

There will be a large crew working through the night until about 4:30am, clearing out just in time for the start of morning train service; so we are making full use of the non-service hours.

We have tried to minimize the impact with a lot of pre-planning. The reduced train frequency (and longer waiting time) is the result of trains having to run in alternating directions over up to 4 km. of “single” track between available track crossovers. It’s a bit like those summer highway delays when you have to wait, and be escorted in alternating convoys, around a paving crew.

Train service is being timetabled for each area to get the most throughput, and minimize the chance of delays. Trains should be passing each other on the “normal” tracks on either side

We are making exceptions for large events, and are avoiding the busier Friday and Saturday evenings (although that may be cold comfort for any regular Sunday-Thursday evening users).

Have a look at the Transport For London plans for weekend work, where they shut down major sections of the London Underground and Overground services, mostly on weekends. (They have a pretty good web presence and notification process for this.)

So what’s in the issue? The main theme is a focus on our roads and bridges work. It’s a theme we’ll be exploring more of in the month of May and the beginning of June on the blog. On the topic of roads and bridges, Peggy Gibbs, TransLink roads engineer, was the first installment of our Ask TransLink series on the blog. This latest issue of the Buzzer includes a wrap up of series, primarily the second installment with Brian Revel.

Bike to Work and School Week starts on May 27th this year and we wrote a little about how great of an initiative it is!

This issue also has info on Victoria Day service. In short, all transit will run on a Sunday schedule. You’ll want to read this for all of the specifics.

Info about GradPass and the time and date for TransLink’s Annual General Meeting can also be read this month. Mark May 29, 2013 from 9:30-10:30am if you’re interested in attending our AGM.

And what would a Buzzer newsletter be without coming events, contest corner and back issue? The answer: it wouldn’t be much of an issue!

We hope you enjoy this month’s issue. As always, let us know what you think of it!

From April 15 to May 10, you can Ask TransLink! We’re spotlighting one TransLink staff member every week and inviting you to ask them questions about their work. Find out all about the series.

Mary Riemer, transit planner!

We’re winding down on our week asking questions with Mary Riemer, transit planner extraordinaire—and here’s a recap of what she’s been up to in her Ask TransLink post!

Why do buses “bunch up” at bus stops?

Mary took on a question from Sheila about why buses sometimes arrive very close together at bus stops!

I am curious why, between Alma & Granville, the #9 and the #14 always come at the same time?
It would be much more helpful to have them spaced. It is very disappointing to miss them both when the traffic light is against me as I try to cross Broadway at Vine or Yew.

Hi Sheila. I can relate to how missing your bus can be frustrating! While the #9 and the #14 are scheduled at different times, they are subject to a multitude of external forces such as unpredictable traffic patterns, resulting in bus bunching! (arriving at the stop at the same time – I touch on this a bit more in my answer to Eric about the #20 ) In this case, it is largely due to the fact that they are both frequent services, serving a high demand corridor with destination anchors at either end and high turnover along the route. The good news is that these are characteristics of an effective and productive service, and we can work with our operating company to address any chronic bus bunching between the #9 and #14 to make them work even more efficiently together!

How do we choose route numbers?

SS asked about how we pick numbers for new routes. Here’s what Mary said.

I’m also wondering about how route numbers are determined for new routes.

This is an interesting question. Historically, streetcars in Vancouver were named for the corridor or street that they served. As they were replaced by trolley busses, they maintained these service numbers. Across the region, most services are numbered for the destinations that they serve. We also try not to reuse numbers for new routes that have been used in the past. As for community shuttle route naming, TransLink has recognized that the vehicle type is not necessarily tied to the level of service provided, and therefore are moving away from the #CX naming.

How are we dealing with population growth South of Fraser?

From our Facebook live chat, Haruo Chikamori asked about how we are dealing with the growing population in the South of Fraser area. Here’s what Mary had to say.

How is Translink going to deal with the influx of population growth on the South Side of the Fraser? It seems as though the transit situation there is regressing there rather than moving forward. Surrey is one of the fastest growing population centers in the Lower Mainland. The Transit Plan has not been finalized, the extension of the Skytrain into Langley has been planned, but not finalized. Buses are driving by full while people wait on the sidelines and buses have been cut.

Hi Haruo! We know that the South of Fraser is growing rapidly and we have been doing as much as possible to increase service. We recently issued the Surrey Rapid Studies, looking at different alternatives. You can check them out here.

Through our Service Optimization program we have been increasing service in the South of Fraser as much as possible given our funding situation. We recently introduced the #555 Port Mann Express and later this year we will be introducing the 96 B-Line on King George Boulevard! -mary

What transit systems can Vancouver learn from the most?

And also from Facebook, Brandon Yan asked a great question.

I think Vancouver has a fantastic transit system but do you have any city in the world where you look to them and go “yeah, they get transit”? Who could Vancouver learn from the most?

Hi Brandon… Metro Vancouver has some unique characteristics, some cities we can look to and learn from include Hong Kong, Portland, and San Fransisco. While there are cities with fantastic transit systems like London, it is hard to compare their system with ours because there are so many differences between their urban fabric and ours. – mary

Get your questions in by noon today!

If you’ve still got questions, Mary will be available to answer until noon today, Friday May 10, 2013! Submit your questions on her Ask TransLink page, and she’ll get the answers for you.

From April 15 to May 10, you can Ask TransLink! We’re spotlighting one TransLink staff member every week and inviting you to ask them questions about their work. Find out all about the series.

Mary Riemer, transit planner!

All right: for our final week of Ask TransLink, we’re heading to Facebook to do a live chat with Mary Riemer, transit planner!

Join us at 2 p.m. today, May 9, 2013, at TransLink’s Facebook page: we’ll launch a post and reply to as many questions as we can for an hour.

If you’re curious, here’s more about Mary from earlier this week. Hope to see you there!

Edit: we did it! Check out the full Facebook post here!

The sign at Commercial-Broadway Station

Heads up: there are some elevator/escalator outages at Commercial-Broadway this Saturday, May 11, 2013. The details:

All elevators and escalators on the Commercial side (to platforms 1 & 2) of Commercial-Broadway Station will be out of service on Saturday, May 11, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. due to BC Hydro maintenance work in the area. Elevators and escalators on the Broadway side (to platforms 3 & 4) of the station are expected to remain operational. Customers who require assistance should request help using the red emergency phone or from a SkyTrain Attendant.

Please share with anyone who might be affected!

From April 15 to May 10, you can Ask TransLink! We’re spotlighting one TransLink staff member every week and inviting you to ask them questions about their work. Find out all about the series.

Mary Riemer, TransLink transit planner!

We’re super excited to welcome transit planner Mary Riemer to the blog!

Mary will be kindly taking time to answer all your questions this week, all the way until Friday, May 10, 2013 at noon. And she’ll do a special 1 hour Facebook live chat on Thursday, May 9, at 2 p.m.!

We asked Mary a couple of questions about her work to kick it off: here we go!

Hi Mary! What kind of work do you do for TransLink?

Hello! I am an Assistant Transit Planner in TransLink’s Service Planning team. I’ve been with the agency for just over a year, supporting both the Area Transit Planning and Network Management programs. Service Planning works with our operating companies to make sure the transit network is developing in a way that will help meet the region’s long-term goals and objectives. This involves continuous analysis of how people use the various services available to them and based on those findings, making adjustments to improve both the efficiency and usefulness of the network.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m working on a lot of exciting projects! The Northeast Sector Area Transit Plan has just kicked off and will establish a long-term vision for the transit network in the communities of Anmore, Belcarra, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody, as well as identify a range of near-term transit priorities to begin the realization of that vision.

Service Optimization is another part of what we do in Service Planning. These projects aim to put service where it is needed most and better match supply and demand, helping TransLink generate revenues to support efficient transit service across the region. One of the most important aspects of Service Optimization is consultation with the public. In the fall, we received invaluable feedback on proposed changes that helped us understand potential impacts and, in several cases, refine the projects to help mitigate these.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I love my job! One of the best parts of my work is talking to the public about their thoughts and ideas. So I’m excited to answer your questions about Service Planning and hear what you love about transit in Metro Vancouver too.

Thanks Mary!

All right everyone – now it’s your turn! Submit your questions in the comments below, and we’ll get Mary to answer them for you until Friday, May 10, 2013 at noon!